Sometimes a big cause of hauling inefficiency is just have too many idle dwarves. Imagine having 50 stones in some distant, deep room and you want to move it to a stockpile in the fort. It would be best to have a couple of guys load up a minecart and send it home along the tracks, but you know it wouldn't work that way, especially if you have 50 or more idle dwarves. Most likely they would all like to pick up a stone, put it in the minecart and then walk all the way back to the dining room empty handed, for a gain of zero efficiency.

Solving this problem sounds technically difficult, so I want to ask:

Are there cases where a busy dwarf will be considered a better job recipient than an idle dwarf? How have you handled this so far?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, we can handle it ourselves by simply having few stone haulers. Heh, maybe this issue does not require complex problem solving.

Sometimes a big cause of hauling inefficiency is just have too many idle dwarves. Imagine having 50 stones in some distant, deep room and you want to move it to a stockpile in the fort. It would be best to have a couple of guys load up a minecart and send it home along the tracks, but you know it wouldn't work that way, especially if you have 50 or more idle dwarves. Most likely they would all like to pick up a stone, put it in the minecart and then walk all the way back to the dining room empty handed, for a gain of zero efficiency.

Solving this problem sounds technically difficult, so I want to ask:

Are there cases where a busy dwarf will be considered a better job recipient than an idle dwarf? How have you handled this so far?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, we can handle it ourselves by simply having few stone haulers. Heh, maybe this issue does not require complex problem solving.

Quote from: devlog 04/02/2012

The hauling changes have begun. This afternoon there were dwarves running around with bins, bags and barrels, vacuuming up items. Seeing a single dwarf clean up a seed-ridden dining room as a single job is a beautiful thing.

I don't know for sure, but this devlog suggests a single dwarf loading an entire room of stones into one container (in this case a minecart) as a single job, thereby bypassing the problem of getting one dwarf to do the same job in the same area over and over.

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I have an idea. Let's play a game where you win by being as quiet as possible.

I get it, it's one of those games where losing is fun!

I spend most of your dimension's time outside of your dimension. I can't guarantee followup or followthrough on any comments, ideas, or plans.

Unless I'm mistaken, that was the other thing that was supposed to be in this update. I can't access the main page right now, otherwise I'd hunt down the relevant devlog.

Not in the next update most likely, but during this cycle of bugfixes (that is, before Toady gets back to the caravan arc releases - it's not quite a bugfix cycle anymore). Also better support of resizing the window, and maybe, maybe, other ESV items.

I didn't listen to the latest FotF . . . will a dwarf that's on fire cause nearby dwarves to get a "douse flaming dwarf" job? Are there going to be personality effects? I can picture a cool-headed dwarf grabbing a bucket of water from a water stockpile (we should totally have water stockpiles) and putting himself out, while a more high strung dwarf might dive into the nearest body of water regardless of egresses or angry inhabitants, and a most nervous dwarf might run around screaming until an ignominious end in the booze stockpile.